Berlin: Break on through! Plant defies asphalt

As Marko and I were passing by the big construction site in front of the Bethanien (an old brick hospital, once site of squatters’ movement, now home to arts organizations), he pointed and said, “There’s something for Urban Plant Research.” In a strip of newly laid asphalt, there had already been some kind of small-scale upheaval. It looked like the blacktop had been broken from underneath by some very determined plant!

We wriggled under the construction fence to get a closer look. Indeed, erupting dramatically out of the crumbly black asphalt were crumpled but vigorous-looking green-red leaves and stems, bringing with them a quantity of sand.

They seem to have done their work before the asphalt had even had time to dry, for it was all loose and fragmented. Clearing away the larger chunks revealed that the plant was not content to send up just a couple stems, but was already busy making dozens.

I am perplexed as to what kind of plant this might be and what stage of life it was in, at the moment the asphalt was laid. It seems too well-developed to have just recently come from a seed. Maybe it was already a fairly large plant but was only chopped down to its roots before being paved over? At any rate, it seems like a good illustration for the word tenacity.

Wow, Leslie, this is certainly a find of mythic proportions! I wish I knew what the plant’s story was, though perhaps it’s more fun to guess. Maybe I’ll write a song about it!

Jo, I don’t think it’s an ailanthus – I think the stems would be brown and woody – though you’re right, they grow right through the concrete all the time. For a long time I’ve been wanting to write about the iconic tree of heaven. Soon…

Jo, it’s nice that you mention the tree of heaven because Sara and I actually have matching shirts with the tree on them. Yes, it does have a distinctive smell. In the U.S., people tend to say it smells like Cheerios, a very popular breakfast cereal. I wonder how people from countries where Cheerios are not popular (e.g. Germany) describe this smell?

Sara, it would be great if you wrote a song about the tree of heaven. You could sing it at our exhibition!

Maybe it would be helpful for your song to know that the tree has other interesting names. Ingrid, a horticulturist-turned-biologist I know, told me that gardeners often call it the “tree of hell” because it’s such a tough weed (or persistent, as Jo says). And in German it’s called Chinesische Götterbaum (Chinese Gods-Tree).

The Wikipedia entry on the tree of heaven is really interesting. I didn’t know that it’s a native of Taiwan (like my dad) nor that in China, it is used both for raising silkworms and for making steamer baskets! Also, though American gardeners may think of it as only a weed, it is still planted as a decorative tree in Europe, and in Germany, tree-of-heaven honey is a local specialty (this last fact from the German-language Wikipedia entry).